Hawaii Biotech, Inc was awarded a three-year $2.9 million SBIR phase-II grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) to continue development of a vaccine to protect healthy individuals from tick-borne encephalitis. This brings Hawaii Biotech's current product array to three, including vaccine candidates for dengue virus, West Nile virus and Tick-Borne Encephalitis.

"This support will allow us to complete preclinical development and move forward towards clinical testing of our Tick-Borne Encephalitis vaccine candidate," stated Dr Elliot Parks, CEO of Hawaii Biotech, Inc.

Hawaii Biotech will use its proprietary recombinant protein production platform to produce a subunit vaccine containing the Tick-Borne Encephalitis envelope glycoprotein. Subunit vaccines provide a number of benefits over virally based proteins. This grant will help to fund optimization of protein expression, downstream processing, and vaccine formulation. Funds will also be used to establish vaccine safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy in appropriate animal models.

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), also known as spring-summer encephalitis, is an important infectious disease in many parts of Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Asia.

Hawaii Biotech is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the research and development of prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases.